A first look at art from the Kochi-Muziris Biennale

Here’s what you can expect from Chittrovanu Mazumdar’s four-roomed installation at Aspinwall House

If you walk into Aspinwall House in Fort Kochi next week, you might find yourself trying to answer some deep questions about life. While drawing parallels about it to a powerful life-force: water. And where better to do it than by the side of the expansive Arabian Sea. At the upcoming Kochi Muziris Biennale, Bengali-French artist Chittrovanu Mazumdar will try to map the journey of the powerful life force, while connecting it to the human psyche.

Work in progress

Mazumdar’s thought-provoking installation is spread over four rooms. The first room fashioned like a dark metal tunnel, featuring a tangle of wires and incandescent lights—a space significant for what it simply, and for the journey it represents. The second room, however, takes on the tone of reflection—with the surroundings walls filled with lights inside metal bowls. Room three has a book on which the artist projects a film of the water in the Ganga River, lapping upon the steps. And the final room has seven boxes: filled with metal and scraps—symbolic of sediment, and representing the remnants of a long journey.

Inspiration for the work comes from artist’s time at Jharkhand, a state where things like electricity are considered luxuries only a fortunate few have access to. This year’s biennale will have more than 80 different artists participating—with installations spread across 11 locations in the port city.

The 3rd edition of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale starts from December 12, 2016 and will be on till March 29, 2017.